Collins: I Need More Info Before I Can Support Rice

'Eerie echo' of 1998 attacks in Benghazi, Maine Senator says

Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) said she needs more information on the Benghazi attack before she can support

“I would need to have additional information before I could support her nomination,” Collins said after meeting with the ambassador.

“There’s much left to be learned,” Collins went on to say.

The Maine Senator emphasized the “echo” of the 1998 embassy attacks in Africa in the Benghazi attack this year repeatedly.

“What troubles me so much is the Benghazi attack in many ways echoes the attacks on those embassies in 1998 when Susan Rice was head of the African region for our State Department,” Collins said.

“In both cases, the ambassadors begged for additional security,” Collins continued. “The ambassador to Kenya sent repeated messages to the State Department requesting a stronger facility because of the increased threat and those requests — as in the case of Benghazi — were turned down by the State Department.”